'Fairy princess' pleads guilty in Novato ripoff gone haywire

A woman charged with robbing a Novato marijuana grower while dressed as a fairy princess pleaded guilty Friday to armed burglary.

Mollie Anna Blumberg, 21, of San Rafael was one of three women arrested after the Halloween morning heist. Although she was not the suspect with the gun, she is still culpable for being a principal player in an armed crime, said Deputy District Attorney Geoff Iida.

Blumberg, appearing with defense attorney Jack Rauch on Friday morning, accepted a plea deal for a four-year prison term with no credit for time served in jail.

Judge Andrew Sweet repeatedly asked Blumberg if she understood what she was agreeing to.

"Yeah," she said.

Blumberg is being held without bail pending her sentencing May 9.

Her codefendants — Teresa Leanne Gollihugh, 21, and her mother, Keren Ann Blake, 39 — are awaiting a preliminary examination of the evidence. They have pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery, residential burglary and assault with a deadly weapon.

The alleged home invasion robbery occurred at about 2 a.m. Oct. 31 at a home in the 2400 block of Center Road in Novato. The alleged victim, David Murray Randolph, told police he was robbed by three women, one in a fairy costume, another wearing military camouflage and holding a handgun, the third dressed in a hood and a wig.

Randolph suffered numerous injuries — including a 5-inch cut to his head that required 22 stitches — after he was allegedly struck by beer bottles, a metal lamp, a coffee mug and glass from a shattered bong, police said. He escaped the robbers by running outside and calling for help.

Randolph later told police he pulled off the third woman's wig and recognized her as an ex-girlfriend, Keren Blake. Then he realized that the woman in the military fatigues was Blake's daughter, Gollihugh, a Coast Guard servicewoman he had met before.

Randolph said the women rummaged through the home and stole a laptop and a cellphone, but fled before taking anything else. Randolph had a large marijuana grow in the house, police said.

Novato police contacted the Coast Guard base at Two Rock to notify officials that Gollihugh was a suspect. A security official said Gollihugh was still in the service, but had received a dishonorable discharge that same day, police said.

Gollihugh later admitted to police that the venture was a plot to steal marijuana, according to court documents.

Gollihugh is free on bail. Her mother, a Petaluma resident, remains in custody in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Randolph himself is awaiting trial on marijuana-cultivation charges stemming from a raid at his home last April, when county drug investigators seized about 500 plants and two pounds of processed pot.